Just be before the Thanksgiving holiday I placed a query on this list
regarding instructions for the replacement of the hard drive in a Duo 2300.
Thanks to all who replied, especially Mark J, Mathis, and Mark S (and one
other who's e-mail I have apparently lost - but thanks anyway).
Here is a synopsis of what I learned.
a) there are written instructions available for openning the Duo 200
series at an FAQ site at http://home.att.net/~JBDUOFAQ/duo.html. That site
also has a pdf file for a Duo 280 drive replacement.
b) between the two, the pdf file is much better, and has pictures. But
there are differences between the 280 and the 2300 and there are omissions
in both the sets of instructions.
c) keyboard removal is easy, taking the top cover off is easy (but not as
easy as described in either set of instructions - the right front cannot be
slid forward and off the tabs until the rear of the cover is raised up at
least an inch. I needed to loosen the display hinges a little to get the
space needed to raise the rear of the cover. On the Duo 2300, the track
pad ribbon cable needs to removed from the motherboard _before_ the cover
is lifted up too high. Also, watch out for the metal piece that covers the
latch sleep switch just in front of the trackpad [it can't break, but just
observe how it fits so you can replace it later]), replacing the drive is
easy ( this is not even in the instructions, but the new drive probably
won't have a bracket, so remove the one from the drive you are replacing -
it should probably fit. It is also easier to unplug the drive ribbon cable
at the motherboard before trying to detach the ribbon cable from the
drive).
d) that said, I successfully replaced my drive (actually the hardest part
was backing up the old drive and then restoring everything to the new
drive, but that went smoothly too). I went from the 1 M IBM Travelstor to
a 2M IBM Travelstor. The drives were identical in size and power
consumption.
e) what have I gained?
* a speed increase of at least 20% using the same 8.1 system - the old
IBM was rather pokey
* a much, much quieter drive - the old IBM was noisey, especially when
the stepper would move the head
* twice as much space - I now have 2, 1 M partitions with sys 8.6
installed on the 2nd partition
f) would I do it again? ABSOLUTELY!
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